According to the Icecat figures, the global e-channel expanded by 69% in 2015 measured in product data-sheet downloads by ecommerce users. Icecat Top 100 brands are headed by HP, Philips and Lenovo. Manufacturer sales performance correlates strongly (70%) with data-sheet downloads. DELL and L'Oreal develop fast in the e-channel and Flat panels, Light bulbs, and Nail polish reach higher. The US and Germany are the leading e-channel countries while China is fast developing.

E-channel expands 69% globally

The global e-channel continues to develop considerably fast in 2015 compared to 2014: by 69% in terms of data-sheet downloads, by 25% in terms of connected channel partners, and by 25% in terms of technical e-commerce platforms supported. In 2015, Icecat facilitated a staggering 6.6 billion product data-sheet downloads for products from 12,116 different brands and 2,719 different categories.

A data-sheet contains product specifications as standardized by Icecat and rich media, if permitted by the respective brand. The number of monitored brands increased by 18% and the amount of supported categories grew by 30%. "The e-channel embraces virtually every category and country nowadays", according to CEO Martijn Hoogeveen "as traditional brands like L'Oreal Paris and traditional categories like lamps and nail polish are sold via e-commerce portals next to flat panels and PCs. Very exciting is that the online visibility of product data correlates well with the overall performance of stock noted companies in terms of revenues growth."

Plotting the top 10 brands based on Icecat downloads in 2015, against the brand owner's sales company performance according to Yahoo Finance/IQcapital, we can see that the Icecat data-sheet Downloads metric correlates strongly (70%) with the respective company's annual revenues growth. For convenience, we took into account the stock-noted companies, since comparable public financial data is easily available. The correlation is statistically significant for this sample.

It's kind of intuitive that online visibility of a brand owner's product data, affects the overall performance of a manufacturer in the current e-commerce era.

It seems that around 15% of growth in online visibility is related to 1% overall revenue growth for a manufacturer. That's understandable as not all sales of a brand owner is online, and other factors influence a company's actual sales performance as well, such as price erosion and other market trends.

Also in an earlier analysis using a sales-out panel, a significant correlation between sales performance and Icecat Data-sheet Downloads was found. The wide adoption of Icecat in Western ecommerce markets, results in reliable and valid statistics.

DELL and L'Oreal Paris develop fast in the e-channel; HP, Philips and Lenovo head top 100

The Icecat top-100 of brands is headed by HP, Philips and Lenovo in 2015. DELL and Philips are the two fastest developing among the top 10. DELL is also leading in the e-channel, leaving behind other PC rivals like ASUS, Acer and Toshiba. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is on a standstill after being divested by HP.

The fastest developing E-channel brands in 2015 are supplies brands Konig, atFoliX and Valueline. Interesting is to note beauty brand L'Oreal Paris and lighting brand Massive also among the fast-growing ones, registering heavy download activities. Kodak has been resurrected from the grave.

Flat panels, Light bulbs, and Nail polish reach higher

In the top 10 e-channel categories, PC flat panel screens makes the most notable positive change. PCs/workstations experience a comeback now that across the US & Europe investments in workplaces are higher.

Also in 2015, the top 10 fast-growth categories contains distinct categories such as car light bulbs (and other bulbs and lights), nail polishes and shaver accessories.

USA and Germany leading e-commerce in the West; China and Russia develop fast.

Based on a number of factors, the e-channels in countries like the US, Germany, and The Netherlands are most mature. China and the Russian Federation are rising fast in the top 10: the laws of e-commerce are relatively independent from the general slowdown in terms of import and export.

Other countries outside the top 15 that develop quickly are India, Poland, Taiwan, Mexico and Japan.